Posts Categorized: Farming & Property Bulletin

Changes to Weight and Speed Limits – Tractors and Trailers The Department for Transport has announced that it intends to change the weight and speed limits for agricultural tractors and trailers on the roads of Great Britain from Spring 2015. While the maximum laden weight for a trailer will remain unchanged, the maximum combined weight… Read more »

Vale of White Horse Local Plan Vale of White Horse District Council has announced its intention to publish the latest version of its Local Plan 2031. Over the past six months the council has been updating and amending the local plan based on the comments residents and businesses provided as part of the consultation… Read more »

Land Prices Continue to Rise Land prices are continuing to rise according to the Rural Land Market Survey as published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. This is being driven by the rise in demand for residential and ‘lifestyle’ farmland plus continued commercial demand. The survey shows for the first half of 2014 a… Read more »

CAP Reform Announcements Delayed Unfortunately, the expected announcement by the government on further CAP Reform decisions, in particular greening, has been delayed. The delay in DEFRA announcing the details of how greening will work is becoming very frustrating for all. Many bodies such as the NFU and CAAV tell them that cropping decisions are being… Read more »

SPS 2014 Financial Discipline Single Payments for 2014 may fall by more than previously forecast. Proposals from the EU Commission suggest the ‘Financial Discipline’ could be placed on this years payments with an estimated reduction of 1.3%. This is on top of a reduction in the UK’s Pillar 1 budget of around 3% for the… Read more »

SPS 2014 Guidance Supplement The DEFRA/RPA 2014 SPS guidance supplement is available on the RPA website. SPS Online is now available for 2014 claims and it is expected that paper SP5 forms should start to be sent out during the second week of March. Bulletin – March 2014

SPS Conversion Rate 2013 The rate for converting the 2013 Single Payment will be €1 = £0.83605. This is the official rate as set on the 30th September which fixes the value for 2013 payments. This figure is an increase of 4.8% on last years figure but is still lower than rates set between 2009… Read more »

The CAP regulation package has been agreed to take effect from 1st January 2014 with the new direct payment regime starting from 1st January 2015. The current Single Payment regime therefore remains for 2014 with transitional rules to be put in place. Political agreement was reached on the CAP reform package in June 2013 with… Read more »

New rules apply to the use of fabricated steel, concrete and timber frames – commonly used in farm building construction – from 1st July 2014. From that date, all fabricated structural frames must be CE marked. Some construction products, such as steel beams and bolts, must meet the standard from 1st July 2013. Farming &… Read more »